There were five people at our meeting April 20th, including our guest, Joe Wineke. We did not conduct any business and devoted the entire meeting to an hour and a half discussion with Mr. Wineke, who is running for chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) at this year’s convention June 5-6 in Milwaukee.

Mr. Wineke points to his long and successful career as qualifications for the job: city council, state Assembly, state Senate, Chair of the DPW from 2005-2009, political director for a state-wide labor union, executive director of a labor-management organization, and a division administrator for a state agency.

His two priorities will be recruitment of candidates and messaging. He believes that the party should run candidates in all districts for all elections, not just targeted districts. Even if we lose a race, it builds the base of Dem voters for statewide and national elections. The Democratic Party should have three or four messages, keep them simple, and run hard on them as if they were the Bible. “I want Dems to play offense, not defense.”

Mr. Wineke’s three top issues are economic security, educational opportunity, and equal rights. He elaborated on the issues at length too great to state here.

Joe believes the winds of change are blowing for 2016. He cited examples, including Governor Walker’s declining popularity polls. Joe says he has the experience and the track record to show that he knows how to get things done. He will be ready on day one to organize Wisconsin Democrats once again to take back the legislature, the governorship, and to defeat Ron Johnson and return a Democrat to Russ Feingold’s old Senate seat (hopefully Russ himself!).

Next meeting we will have some pamphlets to share with details about Joe Wineke and his run for state chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.